Ryan, top Republicans huddle with members on budget

Four top Republicans — including Speaker Paul Ryan — huddled with a group of rank-and-file lawmakers on Tuesday night, including members of the Budget Committee, as the GOP leadership tries to figure out a way to advance its own spending plan out of committee, according to multiple sources.

Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) met with the members at 9 p.m. in the Capitol, according to multiple sources involved in the meeting.

Story Continued Below

All members of the Republican leadership are working to wrangle enough votes to pass the budget out of Rep. Tom Price’s (R-Ga.) Budget Committee. It’s a heavy lift, as conservatives such as Virginia Rep. David Brat are urging top Republicans to cut $30 billion from the previously agreed to budget deal from last year. Ryan and McCarthy, however, have made it clear that they were sticking by the number. President Barack Obama and Democrats have already said they would oppose any effort to rework last year's budget deal, one of former Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) last moves before retiring.

Republican leadership only has a few weeks to get the committee - and the larger GOP Conference - in line. A committee vote is planned for the last week in February, with the proposal set to the House floor soon afterward. GOP insiders said Tuesday's session is only the "opening stage" of a lengthy effort by Ryan and his top lieutenants to drum up Republican support for their budget plan. Republicans — as they were last year — are split between defense hawks and deficit hawks. The pro-defense spending faction wants to see more money for the Pentagon, even at the risk of more federal red ink, while deficit cutters are worried that federal spending needs to be cut quickly.

Even as Republicans squabble among themselves, however, one thing is clear — Obama's budget proposal, which was sent to the Hill on Tuesday, is deader than General Francisco Franco.

In a statement, Ryan called Obama's $4.1 trillion proposal “a progressive manual for growing the federal government at the expense of hardworking Americans.”